COMMUNAL AND RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATION

Throughout the Middle Ages, Jewish life in the Diaspora was synonymous with the Jewish Community (qehillah). The qehillah regularized Jewish legal status within both the Christian and Muslim orbits, and provided Jews with a significant degree of self-government. In addition, it provided a framework wherein the members of the community were able to carve out psychological for themselves. This space provided them with a defensive buffer, a refuge in the face of the ongoing deterioration of Jewish legal and economic status over the course of the High and Late Middle Ages. More importantly, the community facilitated the development of a rich religious and cultural life. Autonomy, perforce, stimulated the development of Jewish Law. Scholars who pursued the study and application of the Law developed theories of rabbinic and communal authority; while creating mechanisms for the study, application and implementation of that Jewish Law in unparalleled circumstances. Spiritual life in all communities was centered upon the synagogue (Bet Knesset). An all-encompassing regimen of prayer, study and labor fostered a sense of communal élan and unique purpose, which was frequently characterized as rendering the transforming the Jewish community into a ‘Sacred Community’ (qehillah qedosha). Over all, patterns of communal life created for its members a profound sense of psychological separateness that strengthened Jewish self-awareness in an often-hostile environment.